Stories always materialize during a shooting like yesterday’s at Galilee Baptist Church. Here is just a sampling.

They were her children, sort of:

“I had received a phone call from my daughter and she told me about the shooting. I had family members in the church. I was a block away from the church and parked my car,” a woman said.

“You sit in your car and watch police coming from seemingly every direction. We had relatives inside. Of course, I was concerned.”

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The woman said she walked toward Galilee Baptist Church as people fled while police arrived.

“I caught two little boys in my arms. I didn’t even know them. They were coming from the church. They were crying. And I was sobbing,” she said.

“For that short amount of time they might as well have been my children.”

There had been talk of Crips and Bloods.

“People were taking off their purple and already talking about immediate retaliation,” she added.

Police could not confirm if the incident involved the city’s gang population.

Guard the casket:

When shots were fired and people inside Galilee Baptist Church scrambled for cover, Windy Roberts did what any self-respecting mother would do: she went and guarded her deceased son’s coffin.

Even in death, Windy Roberts had a conviction to see her son Cagney Roberts, 19, arrive safely to his resting place.

In life, Mr. Roberts had made hundreds of friends who packed Galilee Baptist Church on a day that felt more like summer.

Bystanders talked about June, July and August, those dog day afternoons when violence seems more prevalent than any other time.

“It’s going to be a mess,” a man predicted.

The horse before the carriage:

The casket containing Cagney Roberts had been scheduled to be placed inside a horse-drawn carriage then transported through city streets until it reached a final resting place in Colonial Memorial.

“It was parked in front of the church,” said Rodney Hughes of Hughes Funeral Home.

The carriage left the shooting scene at Galilee Baptist Church without Roberts’ body which remained inside the church.

Family friends had no idea when the service would continue.

And what about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard?:

“I’m ready to take Dr. King’s name off this street, too,” Joe Smith agreed.

He had joined my one-man band while another onlooker said he would support such a move. Three people in agreement about a serious topic. OK, not a quorum but maybe it’s time to give Dr. King’s dream a home in a better part of the city.

No, it’s not a cure for violence but many people believe that Dr. King’s memory gets a bad rap in many urban cities where drugs, murder and violence dominate streets that bear his name.

“Just call me. I’m with you,” Smith promised.

— L.A. Parker is a Trentonian columnist. Reach him at laparker@trentonian.com. Twitter @laparker6.